EPROM sideline

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Tue Nov 2 12:28:32 1999

"Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com> wrote:
> The OLD Pre-Unisite (model 2900 ??) programmer from DataI/O was what I used
> many years ago to program both the 5203 and the 1702. Surely they haven't
> entirely skipped those in the course of moving to the UniSit?, or have they?

You're thinking of the model 29 (and 29B). They've been out of support
for quite some time, and they recently removed the last technical info
(such as family and part codes) from their web site.

> Unfortunately not. The UniSite is a good machine, and since it's
> pin-driver technology could probably be made to do it, but Data I/O never
> developed an algorithm for the 1700 series parts that I'm aware of.

I'd be *very* surprised if the pin drivers came anywhere close to being
able to suport the 1702 or 5203, or some of the very early exotic
PROMs. The Unisite was designed to support mainstream parts being
produced in the mid 80s, none of which required voltages above 25V or
below ground.

A friend just picked up a Unisite for $200. I've been looking for a good
deal on one for 13 years, but I don't ever seem to find them. The closest
I got was about four years ago; AT&T capital was selling one for $800
and I might have been willing to buy, except that it had already sold
the day before. Sigh.

Data I/O recently (within the last few years) started putting some kind
of 80 MB removable data storage device (disk? flash?) in their model 2900
and 3900 programmers. When will they get a clue and put a friggin
Ethernet interface on them? Geting bits into the programmer has always
been their weak point. Their async serial ports are too slow (even
at 115.2 Kbps) for dealing with modern EPROMs and flash parts. On the
models with floppy drives, you'd think that sticking in a floppy with the
data would be fast, but no, they've managed to make that ridiculously
slow as well. Maybe they think this will get customers to buy more
programmers from them: "Hmmm... for this product I'll need to burn
sets of eight 32-megabit flash parts for each version of the software.
It will take three hours each for the download. I can spend three work
days for each version, or buy eight 2900s and do it all in three hours."
On the other hand, Hanlon's razor says "never ascribe to malice that which
can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Received on Tue Nov 02 1999 - 12:28:32 GMT

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